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NASA spacecraft enters the Sun's corona for the first time
The Parker Solar Probe has become the first spacecraft to fly through the Sun's upper atmosphere or corona.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe got closer to the sun than ever before
The mission of NASA's Parker Solar Probe is to help us answer some major questions we have about the sun, and to do that, it's getting closer to the sun, or any star, than a spacecraft has ever been. Between October 31st and November 11th, the probe conducted its first solar encounter, swooping to within 16.9 million miles of the sun's surface and entering its atmosphere, or the corona. And now, we have the first image from that encounter, one that NASA scientists shared at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union this week.
The fastest human-made object launches for the Sun this Saturday
If the weather remains favorable and everything goes according to plan on August 11th, NASA is sending a spacecraft to the sun. The Parker Solar Probe will go closer to the massive ball of gas and plasma keeping our solar system together than any other spacecraft has gone before. It will brave extreme temperatures reaching up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit to collect data and images of the sun's atmosphere called "corona." The spacecraft will also reach speeds up to 430,000 mph, making it the fastest-ever human-made object. That's nowhere near fast enough to reach Alpha Centauri within our lifetime -- it has to travel around 7,000 years to reach the star closest to our sun -- but fast enough to get from Philadelphia to DC in a second.
Scientists discover structure within the Sun's atmosphere
While scientists have been learning more and more about our solar system and the way things work, many of our Sun's mechanics still remain a mystery. In advance of the launch of the Parker Solar Probe, which will make contact with the Sun's outer atmosphere, however, scientists are foreshadowing what the spacecraft might see with new discoveries. In a paper published this week in The Astrophysical Journal, scientists detected structures within the Sun's corona, thanks to advanced image processing techniques and algorithms.
Solar eclipse gives NASA a rare opportunity to study Mercury
While you're stuck on Earth during today's solar eclipse, NASA jets will be performing a tricky science experiment on the Sun and its closest companion, Mercury. A pair of them will take off this morning from Houston's Johnson Space Center and follow the path of of the eclipse, allowing them to see "totality" for three and half minutes, nearly a minute longer than Earth observers. Equipped with a pair of infrared telescopes each, they'll examine the sun's corona and Mercury's chemical signatures to find out what lies below its surface.
Comet Ison may have survived its kiss with the sun (update: it didn't)
We humans can form curious attachments to non-living things, so when Comet Ison veered recklessly toward the sun, naturally we rooted for the plucky iceball. Unfortunately, scientists feared the worst after seeing it mostly vanish when it brushed past the sun's corona. Cue the heroic music, though, as new footage released early today (after the break) shows that at least part of the 1.4 mile-wide comet has emerged from the brutal encounter. It's looking a bit ragged after all that, so astronomers will have to wait a bit more to make a final call on its health. Hopefully it'll still be classed as "comet" rather than "scorched hunk of rock." Update: Sorry folks, but it looks like the comet Icarus Ison got a little too close to the sun, as it's been confirmed that the comet has broken apart and is no more. Watch its fiery destruction in the new video after the break.
Corona introduces an SDK starter, will raise Pro price to $599
Unity is probably the most popular tool for cross-platform development out there right now -- last week at GDC, I heard a lot from developers of all sizes about Unity and how it was helping them to build games for iOS and other platforms. But Corona also has a following out there. It's a Software Development Kit (SDK) that has been updated quite a bit lately, and I did hear a few devs say it's what they use to make their titles. One game development student even told me he's being taught how to use Corona specifically at school, so the tool definitely has its fans. Today, Corona has announced that it's hoping to make its platform more accessible than ever, with a new "SDK Starter" program that will allow developers to make and sell apps with Corona for completely free. The SDK is available as a free download, and as long as you don't need certain features (like in-app purchases or analytics services), you can publish apps made with Corona for exactly zero dollars. Some other SDKs require you to use a certain splash screen on your app or advertise the service in some other way, but Corona's new program doesn't even require that -- it's really free. Of course, the company does offer those other services, and more, with a Pro account. Corona also says it's "re-imagining" what Pro will mean for the service, which essentially means a price raise, to US$599 a year on May 1. The current subscription is $349, and anyone can still get one at that price until the first of May. Pro users will have access to in-app purchases and various analytics, as well as the option to use Corona's high-end graphic features, and the plugin system. But even if you're not interested in a full Pro subscription, it's nice to see that Corona's offering the free option for developers to try out the service for themselves. Unity, I would say, is still the leader in this area, and they offer a free version of the tools for developers to try. But you do need to pay to publish a commercial game on that platform, so maybe Corona will grab a few more users (and see a few more published titles) with this free opportunity.
Visualized: Telescope aboard suborbital NASA rocket takes clearest ever images of sun (video)
NASA has shown just what it can do with the short window of science allowed by its "sounding" or sensor-equipped suborbital rockets -- having taken the sharpest pictures ever of the sun's corona. A 460-pound telescope called the High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) was lofted for about 10 minutes into space, ample time for its mirrors to capture over 150 images of the solar fringe at 16-megapixels each, before parachuting back to earth. The scope shot exclusively in a sun-friendly high ultraviolet range and used innovative new optics consisting of an array of mirrors, allowing it to resolve the sun down to 135 miles. That bested the previous champ, NASA's own Solar Dynamics Observatory, with almost five times the magnification. For maximum effect, the space agency took advantage of an unusually high amount of solar activity to focus on a large, active sunspot. To see the results in glorious multihued HD, check the video after the break.
RedSn0w updated for Mac and Windows: adds Corona A5 jailbreak, other tools
What better way to finish off your night than by updating your favorite jailbreaking tool? Now, you'll be able to do just that after the whiz-kids from the iPhone Dev-Team have pushed out a new copy of their famed RedSn0w application. In what's perhaps the biggest inclusion, version 0.9.10b7 now adds implementation of that untethered Corona jailbreak for A5 devices, making it easier for the iOS 5.0.1 crowd to do bits like reinstalling the tweaked software. In addition, the app's now capable of grabbing SHSH blobs (you know, those tiny files that grant your phone freedom) straight from Cydia, while also giving users the ability to see if their slab carries a vulnerable bootloader or if it's exploitable. RedSn0w 0.9.10b7 is out now for both Windows and Mac, and you can grab it at the source link below.
HP eyes 2015 release for 3D integrated photonic chips
It's unavoidable -- mention HP and images of the TouchPad come floating to the surface. What most geek folk don't realize, however, is that the company recently famous for open sourcing webOS has been hard at work behind-the-scenes prepping for the next stage in computing: integrated photonics. The project, codenamed Corona, aims to create stackable 3D chips that communicate using inbuilt, microscopic lasers made from gallium. This new breed of CPUs is on track to combine "256 general purpose cores organized in 64 four-core clusters" created using a 16nm process for a performance boost of up to six times faster than traditional circuitry. Why do this? Well, the nature of optical communication would not only speed up the rate at which the various cores could relay data (a theoretical 20 terabytes per second), but would also drastically lower power requirements from a current 160 watts to 6.4 watts. Sounds like the future, indeed, but as with all things forward-facing, many of the necessary components are still being developed, so take that 2015 target date with a heady amount of sodium chloride.
5 indie mobile games for 99c, some proceeds go to charity
Want to snag five mobile games for $0.99 and feel 17 percent better about yourself as a human being? The Corona Indie Bundle might be just for you. The bundle includes five games: The Secret of Grisly Manor, Chickens Quest, Robot 99, Walkabout and Float. As a bonus, should the bundle reach 100,000 downloads, an unnamed sixth game will be unlocked. What's more, 17 percent of the proceeds will be given to different charities, namely Bliss, Child's Play and Dispensario de Managua. The bundle is currently available via iTunes as a universal app, while the Android version should be available on Android Market starting tomorrow, October 12. Check out footage of all five games in the video above.
NASA going to the Sun, Jay Leno readies 'hot' jokes for coming years
Our favorite aerospace exploration organization will finally fulfill a 1958 recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences by sending the Solar Probe Plus into the Sun's atmosphere. It will be the first time any craft visits a star -- previous data have been collected from at least millions of miles away. Why the personal visit? Two main reasons: to determine why the sun's corona is millions of kelvin hotter than its visible surface, and to learn more about how that solar wind we've been hearing so much about lately gets accelerated. Look out for answers to these and other burning questions (we're getting started early!) sometime before 2018.
